Goring woman’s death was ‘accidental’

Dan Cain

A WOMAN died as a result of falling out of her bed while being cared for at Worthing Hospital.

Iris Pilgram, died aged 92, on August 25, last year – one week after she fell out of a bed on Becket Ward.

Karen Henderson, assistant coroner, concluded that Mrs Pilgram died an accidental death resulting from her fall, at an inquest in Centenary House in Durrington last Wednesday.

“It’s arising from that fall and general frailty from old age that resulted in the development of a subdural haematoma and given her own wish to not be resuscitated, further treatment was not possible,” she said.

Mrs Pilgram had previously fallen on her driveway on July 25 last year.

On August 5, she was prescribed a diuretic by Dr Andrew Ruffer, from the Phoenix Medical Centre, the Waterfront, in Goring-by-Sea, after struggling with the conditions of a heat wave.

At 5.15am, on August 10, Mrs Pilgram’s daughter, Jennifer, visited her and found her to be ‘distressed, breathless and not herself’. A doctor was called and found her blood pressure to be ‘virtually’ zero. She was admitted to Worthing Hospital at 6pm that evening.

Mrs Pilgram fell from her bed on August 19. Following the accident, she was able to talk and there was ‘no visible sign of trauma to her head’ but her family said she did not seem like the same woman she was before.